Thursday, February 26, 2009

Almost Forgot

Forgot to mention another weird thing that happened yesterday, although it wasn't really all THAT weird. Got a strange text message saying something along the lines of the computer going to be down all day. Didn't have a person's name or anything (like it normally does if someone sends me a text) so I was rather puzzled. Until I realized that it came from Sis' cell phone .... and of course, when her computer system came back online, the IT guys sent an email to let them know..... Gotta love the IT guys!

Tonight is Survivor (in just over an hour!) and I hope it's a more exciting episode than we got last week. And hoping "my guy" does well!


And thinking of almost forgetting -- left my cell phone at home today (again) and it drove me nuts. Not that I get calls or anything, but it bugs me not to have it with me. Got home and looked everywhere I could think of for the darned thing. Finally found it. In the "cell phone pocket" of my purse. D'oh! Had a message to call Duh; she wants me to come over this weekend and tie bows on wooden roses for the Two-Step competition in April. Not sure if it will be on Saturday or Sunday (she'll let me know) but she was wondering if Sis would like to join us .... she lives in Riverside, FYI, Sis.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Today Was .... Different

Started off thinking that today was Thursday and that I'd get to watch Survivor tonight. Of course, that was completely wrong. Then, my co-worker AZ told me that she wished she had my cell number, so that she could have called and told me not to bring lunch today, because she brought me some home-made shrimp fettucini (which was kinda funny because I brought Lean Cuisine fettucini, which is No Comparison at all!) A little while later, AZ started laughing.... she was trying to call a vendor about an invoice and right after she dialed the number, her private line started ringing. She'd hang up to answer the incoming call, and nobody was there. Yup, you got it. She was calling her own number by mistake! Three times.... we giggled over that one a couple times during the day.

Had a "safety meeting" for the AP department today (first one I've gone to). The Boss started out by handing out a flyer on cell phone 'dangers" and said that he hates cell phones, and never uses his. He's 55, and when he was a kid he'd be outside from 8 in the morning until 10 at night, his mom had no way of getting in touch with him and he was never kidnapped or anything, so he sees no need for being so accessible now. That was the extent of our "safety" meeting.

Anyway, I guess it was a pretty good day, all things considered (seeing as it isn't Survivor night and all).

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Been A While

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted (as was pointed out to me in a prior comment). Shows how exciting my life is, I guess ... just so busy there's no time to type! LOL Yeah, right. Let's see. Work. Late lunch on Saturday with The Boy, Dad and J. Late breakfast on Sunday with The Kids, followed by a drive to the ski lift area of Mt Baldy, then back home. Finished my square for the Heartfail KAL (well, re-finished it... I decided to redo the basketball square on larger needles and like it much better. Work yesterday. Work today, followed by tacos with The Boy. Back home. How can one person handle all this excitement, you ask? Oh--you didn't ask. Fine then.

Anyway, here's the reknit basketball square, in which the pattern shows up much more nicely than it did the first time around. And I don't remember if I posted the horse square, so here it is, too.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Survivor Update

Although I probably won't be doing weekly updates, I wanted to post tonight because My Tribe Won The Challenge and Sis owes $.50. We are now even. HA.

Not Much To Say

As usual, there isn't much to report. I stopped on the way home from work yesterday and got new yarn for my Heartfail KAL square. This one is a nice green, and I'm about halfway done with the knitting. I really like this a lot better than the brown; the pattern shows up more clearly. I'll have to think of something else to make with the brown yarn because I do like it. Maybe I'll make a hat for myself. Not that I wear them, but what the heck.

Anyway, here's the square so far ... and now I'm going to get ready for Survivor. And I apologize for the picture quality; I need new batteries for the camera, so this one was taken with my phone.

Oh - and I got confirmation today that my Hattz were received. I wasn't expecting them to get there until tomorrow, so I'm really pleased that they arrived early. Yay!

Monday, February 16, 2009

Frustrated

Planned on sending off my Hattz today; I know the Post Office is closed for the holiday but figured I could send it from the MBE near work. I called to make sure that they provide USPS Express and/or Priority service; the employee asked, "You mean like UPS or FedEx?" I said no, I wanted the 3-day service through the Post Office (I had started out the conversation by stating that I knew the package wouldn't actually be mailed today due to the holiday). She checked and said that yes, they do provide that service. I asked it they had the specific boxes used for the 3-day service and she said yes.

So, I leave work and drive over the the MBE store. The girl at the counter is the same one I had spoken with on the phone (she asked if I was the one that had just called). She went to the back to get a box for shipping - when she came back with a plain brown one, I asked about the white Priority box. She said they didn't have those but that the brown one would work. I said that I had a box in the car I could use (because I didn't want to pay for a box if I didn't have to) if she could tape it shut for me. She said no problem. I went out and got the box, addressed it and she taped it shut. She then told me that they don't do the USPS 3-day delivery; the cheapest way for 3-day delivery would be UPS at $22; or it would be $13 for delivery on Monday. Needless to say, I decided to NOT ship it UPS and said I'd take it to the Post Office tomorrow (and pay $5). I was then charged $.50 for having the box taped shut. Needless to say, they've lost my business.

And now I have to go to the Post Office tomorrow. :sigh:

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Daytona

Today was the Daytona party -- wasn't really sure if I was going to go or not, but had just decided to call Duh and tell her that I'd be there when she called to see if I were joining them. She even told me that at Bunko last night, the hostess for today had specifically asked if I were going to be there. Kinda made me feel good ...

Anyway, we got there in plenty of time to join in all the betting pools. The "main pool" was handled very well -- it is a very random draw for your driver. First step is taking a numbered chip from a bag. This determined the order in which we'd pick drivers. Step two was taking another number from another bag; this corresponded to the starting position of the driver. I ended up with Jimmie Johnson (a name I actually recognized) and was told that he was a good driver to have. Cash was given for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. Needless to say, he didn't win.

There was also "commercial poker" ... they had a large board with everyone's name in a square. Every time there was a commercial break during the race, a card was drawn and added to each persons' hand on the board. Best hand after 5 draws won $32 bucks.

The third pool was set up like the typical football pool except instead of drawing numbers randomly for the across and down columns they chose driver names. The winner of the pool was the person who's name was in the intersecting square. 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prizes were also awarded for this one. Happy won 1st place on that one.

Afterwards we stopped at Circuit City because Happy wanted to buy some dvds. He found quite a few that he wanted; and they also bought all 4 of the Indiana Jones movies for me, because Duh can't believe I've never seen them.

Finished watching "Untraceable" tonight - I had started it this morning and had to leave for the Daytona party. It was a pretty good movie; a couple spots that I kinda didn't watch, but overall a good movie.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Valentine's Day

So, another V-Day has come and gone. Well, almost gone, anyway. And I survived it - despite receiving an email Valentine card from the Ex this morning (which was odd and a bit depressing). I met The Kids for brunch and had a patty melt and onion straws (since I don't have to worry about onion breath). They gave me a V-Day card that has a cat's face with big red-foil-wrapped chocolate lips. Kinda scary looking, but funny.

Came home and puttered around a bit; did some knitting, watched some tv. Went to the craft store to get the brown yarn for my second square for the KAL. They didn't have a solid brown in the Wool-Ease (they must not make solid brown, because I haven't found it at any of the stores) but found a nice mocha in Bernat Satin. After getting home, I finished the first square (except for blocking it). I watched Princess Bride (which, for some reason, had parts cut from it and odd music/sound effects added - don't know if that's something Bravo always does or if it was "special" for Princess Bride). Didn't enjoy the movie as much as I would have if they had only left it alone. I've also started knitting square 2 and have completed 12 rows.

Tomorrow I'm invited to a NASCAR party with Duh and Happy. Haven't decided for sure if I'm going; I think it will depend on the weather since I'll have to drive home afterwards and don't want to drive in the rain.

And that's about it for my Valentine's Day. Hope all the millions of readers (haha, this means you, Sis) had a happy day.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Another Friday Night

Friday the 13th, to be exact. Had a pretty good day, actually ... had enough work to get me through the day (although with no mail on Monday there may be a problem; but I'll worry about it Monday). The AP department had a small potluck - AZ made fantastic taquitos (she got up at four o'clock this morning to make them); MG made rice and I brought cheese/lettuce/sour cream. SR made perfection brownies, DB brought guacamole and chips and SD brought cupcakes. We also each received a small heart-shaped box of chocolates from AZ and a Valentine's Hershey bar from DB.

JR came by the department just before time for most of us to go home and we were able to talk him in to having a brownie (it didn't really take much, because he's had SR's brownies before) and we all joked around for a bit.

Had an odd conversation with one of my co-workers late this afternoon. He asked if I'm "staying on" or not; I told him I was still a temp and hadn't heard anything different at this point. He made a comment about how I'd already been moved from one desk to a "better one" and that I should tell the boss to hire me or else... I laughed and told him I'd be afraid of being told "there's the door". He kinda chuckled and said that wouldn't happen. So, what's so odd about this conversation? Nothing in and of itself...except for the fact that I think it's the first time he's ever spoken to me. Half the time when I see him, I'm not sure he's even aware of my existence!

Got pictures of my Hattz emailed to the scrapbook coordinator (at least I hope they went through ok) and will try to get to the Post Office tomorrow to send off the hats. I'll probably send them Express mail for the traceability and speed. I'm also about 2/3 of the way finished with the first square for the Heartfail KAL. The picture posted here is at the half-way point (taken last night). The design isn't very easy to see, so I'll try to get a better shot after completion and blocking. The pics of the Hattz are on my Flickr site.

Guess that's about it for tonight.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Quick Post

My silly computer decided to have issues this evening, so I'm just posting a short note to say that I'm not posting anything "serious" today. Not that there is really anything to talk about, other than the fact that I've finished the four Hattz and have started on my first Heartfail KAL square.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Good Knitting Day

For a day that started kind of cruddy (didn't sleep much more than 2 hours or so last night), it ended up being pretty good after all! Bad part is that none of the non-family guests were able to make it for knittering today. But I had a great time anyway! Sis arrived at about 10:00, and then about 10:30 The Girl sent a text asking if we wanted to meet for brunch. We figured since it was just the two of us here, we'd go and meet them. Just as we were ready to leave, Duh called to say she was on her way over. So the 5 of us met at Corky's, and then came back here. The Boy hung around for a while and then went out truck hunting. "Be vewy vewy quiet. I'm huntin' twucks!" The four of us sat and worked on our projects and talked (I finished Hattz #3 - did about 3/4 of the hat today - and am almost 1/2 done with the ribbing for #4). Sis finished some socks and started on a Chulo hat for Rafe. The Girl is working on her cabled scarf, but is still having neck problems so didn't get a lot done on it today; and Duh is working on the table runner. She left about 3:45, Sis left about 5:15. The Boy came back after his hunting trip and we had enchiladas for dinner. They just left a few minutes ago. So, I'm exhausted but happy. Hope the others had fun, too!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Mr Piggy Is Famous!

Well, maybe "famous" is too strong a word, but he will be well-known! Had a private message from one of the members of Ravelry, asking if they could use my picture of Mr Piggy for the page dedicated to the Lola Curly the Pig pattern. Of course, I said yes - so now, if you go to the Curly the Pig page you'll see my Mr. Piggy! I'm very jazzed about this, because I'm sure there are better examples out there, but they chose mine. Yay!

2/5 Edited to delete hyperlink, since it appears that the link takes viewers to the general Ravelry page, not the Curly page.

So, I'm hoping I haven't done any serious damage, but I've messed up my right ankle. Was sitting with my leg curled up underneath me, and put my leg to sleep. Got up to get my laundry together and tried taking one step (I can usually walk ok with one foot asleep). Guess it was a lot deader than I had thought it was, because as soon as I put a little weight on the right foot I heard a snap and felt a jot of pain in my right ankle. I've put ice on it and have been sitting with the foot elevated (and did NOT do laundry, which means I'll have to do it tomorrow and it'll be raining). The ankle is a little sore and a bit swollen but I'm able to walk on it (gently) so I'm hoping it's ok.

Finished my second Hattz tonight and have to decide whether or not to make a third. I have just over a week before I need to send them off, so I can do another. And I don't have the yarn for the afghan KAL squares yet, so I should be able to do one more with no problem. Wonder what yarn I have that I can use ...

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Superbowl Sunday

Joined Duh and Happy for a Superbowl party today. Yes, I know - I'm not a football fan, nor am I a party girl. However, I had a really great time. The game was exciting (especially so for the 3 Steelers fans in attendance). There were quite a few people at the party; some I had met before and others that I hadn't. It was nice to be greeted as part of the group by those I had already met. There were a lot of funny commercials, and the halftime show was good (Bruce Springsteen, who looks very good for his age).

There were hot dogs (which I consider more of a baseball food than a football food, but who am I to complain??) along with a bunch of snacky-type foods. Got home a little bit before 9:00 and have been computering and reading since then. Should really have showered tonight since I smell smoky (I sat outside in the smoking section with Duh and Happy) but since I'm the only one here to smell me, I think I can hold off until the morning.

And with that, I'm going to bed. G'night